I COULD not believe my ears when I heard on TV about the Chorley man sentenced to six months in prison for collecting lost golf balls.

I was so annoyed that I immediately contacted the Home Office and was put through to a very helpful man who also said that this was a ridiculous sentence.

Before anyone says: "Ah, but theft is theft," let me say that the golfers who lost the balls did not try to get them back; the golf club did not try to get them back. So where is the crime?

This man got off his backside and used his initiative and another judge with more power than common sense decides to jail him, so causing the state to foot the bill. Please everyone, for the sake of sanity, contact the Home Office and get this innocent man back to his family.

SEAN RATTIGAN, Hollinhurst Road, Radcliffe, Manchester.